Peter Leko Profile

Name: Peter Leko
Nick Name:
Place of birth: Subotica
Date of birth: 8th September 1979
Country: Serbia ( formerly Yugoslavia )
Current Title: Grand master
Current ELO Rating: 2762
 

Peter Leko Biography

Peter Leko was an amazing chess prodigy. Peter Leko is currently the sixth placed player in the FIDE rankings. He was the former youngest Grand master in the world. He achieved the feat at the age of 14.His best Elo rating is 2763,which he achieved, in 2005.

Leko achieved the International master title in 1992.Leko became a Grand Master in 1994.At the age of 15, he finished third at the prestigious category 17 Dortmund tournament. He became the Under-16 World junior chess champion, in 1999. Leko finished runner-up at the Tilburg category 18 tournament. He won the Dortmund tournament and Rapid Grand Prix held at Bordeaux in 1999.In 2000,Leko beat Alexander Khalifman at Budapest in a match. In 2001,he beat Michal Adams in one off  Fischer Random chess match held at Germany.

In 2001,Leko finished third at Dortmund and won the Rapid Master event held at Germany. In 2002,he won the Rapid Grand prix held at Dubai. He finished runner-up at Essen and third placed at the Monaco tournaments. In 2002,Leko got the opportunity to participate in the Candidates tournament for the World chess championship. He won the candidates tournament at Dortmund to qualify for a match up with Vladimir Kramnik for 2004 Classical World Chess championship. Leko tied with Kramnik 7-7 and that enabled Kramnik to retain his title.

In 2005,Leko won the Corus Chess tournament. Leko featured in the 2005 FIDE world chess championship held at Argentina. He finished at fifth position. Leko won the Tal memorial category 20 tournament in 2006. Leko became the ACP Rapid world cup champion in 2007.He featured in the Candidates tournament meant for finding candidate for 2007-world chess championship. He beat Gurveich aswell as Evgeny Bareev to enter the main tournament. He finished fourth at the main candidates championship tournament.

Leko featured in Miskolc rapid chess matches held at Miskolc from 2005.In first year he drew with Michael Adams. In 2006, he defeated Anatoly karpov . However, he lost the last three-years matches against Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen, and Viswanathan Anand. Leko won the category 18 Dortmund tournament in 2008. He won the Chess Olympiad held at Dresden, in 2008.

Leko beat Michal Adams in a Chess960 match involving eight games. This  match was part of Mainz chess classic tournament. This win made him the first Chess960 world champion. As there were no qualification tournaments, many questioned the credibility of such title. Later due to the high rankings of the players, many accepted the verdict. Leko has great abilities in rapid chess format.

Peter Leko married Sofiya Petrosyan in 2000. He likes football, music, tennis bowling as hobbies. Peter Leko is certainly one of the best chess players to emerge from Hungary.4^th rank is the best position achieved by Leko in his chess career. Leko is a dangerous player towards the end of the game.

Radjabov 0 -Leko 1 ,(11ª, End) Rapid , Amber,2007

Live Rapid chess video Peter Leko
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